Watch England vs Sri Lanka live on Sky Sports Cricket on Saturday (7.30am build-up, 8am start); victory would be enough for Jos Buttler's team to make semi-finals; standing in their way is a Sri Lanka side led by former England head coach Chris Silverwood
Friday 4 November 2022 14:14, UK
Nasser Hussain says England hold an advantage in the race to qualify from Group 1 at the T20 World Cup, but says the pitch they play Sri Lanka on on Saturday could prove the challenge.
In a very tight Group 1, a victory of any description will be enough for England to progress to the semi-finals after Australia were unable to significantly boost their net run-rate having only recorded a narrow win over Afghanistan in Adelaide.
Speaking to the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, Hussain touched on the importance of England playing after Australia this weekend, but did add a word of warning regarding England's potential playing surface...
"Firstly, they [England] will have the advantage in that Australia play Afghanistan tomorrow [Friday] night in Adelaide, so they'll know if, say Australia win well - and some of their players are getting through their fitness like Finch, Stoinis - England will know the exact equation," Hussain said.
"You have to win, or you have to win and do so by a certain amount of runs.
"But they've got a healthy lead (run-rate-wise in the group) at the moment.
"The challenge will actually, again, be the pitch.
"South Africa vs Pakistan [on Thursday] is played on the same pitch as New Zealand beat Sri Lanka on a couple of nights ago.
"So that's a used pitch. If they use that again on Saturday, that will bring Sri Lanka into it.
"Because with their three spinners: Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana, they will be useful, and obviously their batters are used to batting on tired pitches.
"If it's a fresh pitch, I really fancy England.
"But as Aaron Finch [Australia skipper] said the other day when asked about it, you have to win the game first. You can't go too hard, too early and then lose the game and the run-rate is irrelevant.
"Get yourself into a position where you're going to win the game, and then - we've been in World Cups before, and I was involved in one - you've just got to make sure you get across the line.
"I remember after the very first game of this World Cup against Afghanistan, someone was tweeting me: 'Why are you waffling on about the strike rate and the net run-rate Nasser? It's only the first game!'
"But only the first game is just as important as only the last game because the net run-rate situation counts throughout.
"You don't want to get to the last ball on Saturday, and think: 'Crikey, I wish we'd gone harder earlier in the tournament'."
Watch England vs Sri Lanka, in Sydney, live on Sky Sports Cricket on Saturday. Build-up begins at 7.30am ahead of an 8am start.
